After starting the week at UNC Greensboro, the Google Apps Road Trip was off to its next stop at my alma mater and home of the Cavaliers, the University of Virginia. Needless to say, as an alum, I was both giddy and nostalgic as we headed north on 29 to the ole' stomping grounds. When we reached the UVa campus in the heart of Charlottesville, all of these great memories came rushing back - Saturday afternoon tailgating, delicious Bodo's bagels, and late nights at the Biltmore. I took a walk around campus to see TJ's "lawn" and grab dinner at the Corner.

I also visited the gorgeous, new building for the McIntire School of Commerce, where I spent 2 years studying finance and management. Recognized as one of the country's premier undergraduate business programs, the Comm School emphasizes a case-based and collaborative learning culture. To simulate a real-world professional environment, we primarily worked in small teams to evaluate the net present value of a product launch or develop a new marketing campaign.

Therefore, I was happy to talk with students about how Google Apps can make their lives and schoolwork a little easier. On Wednesday morning, we pulled the bus right into Newcomb Hall plaza between the book store and student center. UVa recently deployed Virginia mail, so we demoed the cool features of some other Google Apps technology. Students were excited to learn about the real-time collaborative functionality of Google Docs. They appreciated that group work can become less annoying, because they can work on the same paper simultaneously, rather than having to save and send back and forth multiple times. We also heard from graduate students and first-years how they create their own surveys to conduct opinion polls in a Politics class or ask friends about the next trip to Wintergreen.

Overall, it was just a phenomenal visit to Charlottesville. We got to chat with really energetic students, faculty, and administrators and had a lot of fun too - tossing frisbees around the plaza and rocking out to "Say It Ain't So" on the bus. Thanks to everyone at the University of Virginia for "getting on the bus!"

Last week kicked off our second week of the Google Apps Bus Tour adventure! The Google decorated school bus pulled into The Commons at Vanderbilt University early Thursday morning and prepared for a fun day with the Vandy students. It proved to be the perfect spot to catch students in between classes or on their way to lunch for a quick demo and chat with them about how to use Google Apps.

Vanderbilt is one of the thousands of universities providing its students with Google Apps accounts, so our role on campus was to show students ways to take advantage of all the tools available to them.

Many students, despite having Gmail accounts, were not yet aware of all the cool products they now had at their fingertips, such as Docs and Spreadsheets and Google Sites. We were able to give students quick overviews of the applications and new tips and tricks they could use daily. One fan favorite was looking up public calendars in Google Calendar. For example, we were able to look up the schedule for the Tennessee Titans and simply add it to their personal calendars so they always know when their favorite team was playing again. More helpful tips like this one can be found at the Google Apps student site.

Throughout the day, we were able to interact with faculty, students and staff, and not only demo our products, but also hear their personal experiences and feedback on Google Apps. Here's a video that sums up our visit:

This week the bus hits up UNC Greensboro, University of Virginia, and George Washington University as we continue to head cross-country spreading the word about Google Apps. Make sure to check back for our updates and pictures from the road.

Remember those days when you just couldn't wait for the bell to ring on that last day of class? You'd sprint down the hall, burst through the door, and head for daylight, because it's...SUMMERTIME! It's time for iced lemonade and laying out at the beach (or the back-yard plastic pool party), and last but not least, internships at Google (yeah, internships)!

This summer, we played host to some incredible university students around the world - from 14,000 feet (or 4,500 meters!) up in the Swiss Alps to the land down under in Sydney, Australia. Our interns are only at Google for a few months, but their impact and presence remain long after they leave. They are key players in our daily innovation and have the opportunity to make big contributions. So, we wanted to tell their story. After all, they are Googlers Beta. Here is the first of many stories in our on-going series about our awesome interns, our Googlers Beta.

"I held multiple focus groups with interns, developing strategies and getting advice on the best way to market Google Apps to college students."

Brittan Smith, University Programs Intern

Name: Brittan Smith
Hometown: Chino, California
Department: People Operations, University Programs
Education: BA in Sociology at Harvard University
My Story:
Interning on the Global University Programs team, I knew some of my work this summer would revolve around something I am passionate about: education. What I did not know was how much fun I could have being able to merge my passion for education with my interest in marketing and my desire to connect directly with students.

The opportunity to work with both the University Programs and Product Marketing teams with the Google Apps "App to School" campaign has led to three months of working with people all over Google to support the launch of many student-focused initiatives.

My work started with a focus on Google Apps marketing strategies on university campuses for the Google Apps cross-country Bus Tour. I held multiple focus groups with interns, developing strategies and getting advice on the best ways to market Google Apps to college students. From there, my project ballooned. Next thing I knew, I was using these groups to support the Campus Ambassador Program [program for university students interested in promoting Google on their campuses], and to build the Student Blog [highlights intern experiences, new product launches and university initiatives at Google]. The suggestions from the interns kept the ball rolling and one idea really stuck out: "we want to see more interns." With that, creating intern profiles for the Student Blog, Student Job Site, and Student YouTube Channel became my top priority. Now intern profiles are being launched on all of these sites for your viewing.

Knowing that my work not only affects my team, but also university students all around the world, is great to know at the end of my internship. This summer has truly been an invaluable experience.

At Google we're committed to helping build a clean energy future, and we have several projects and initiatives in the works to support this goal. As part of that responsibility, Google has committed to being carbon-neutral, meaning we offset carbon for all of our business operations. And with the November 2007 announcement of our new renewable energy R&D group, Google’s co-founder Larry Page upped the ante, saying, "Our goal is to build one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal, and we are optimistic that this can be done within years, not decades."

In our Mountain View headquarters we currently have a 1.6 megawatt (MW) solar panel installation that generates 30% of the peak power necessary to fuel the buildings on which they are located. And at our Google office in Hyderabad, India, we're planning to install solar modules that heat all the water for the building.

Now to further support this mission, we have decided to incorporate the "App to School" bus tour in our goal of leading a clean energy revolution. The sustainable bus we're driving across the USA runs on 99% biodiesel and is powered by solar panels on the roof. Going one step further we are also going to offset five tons of carbon emissions released by biodiesel combustion through www.liveclimate.org, an organization that "funds" worthy carbon-negative projects in Nicaragua, Uganda, and Mexico. For our donation, we're going to support a small enterprise in Nicaragua (supported by the nonprofit E+Co) to install solar panels on homes, schools, and health centers. Light from the solar systems replaces kerosene lanterns that emit a lot of carbon for the small amount of light they provide. Half of the funds will go to Tecnosol to install solar panels, and the other half to E+Carbon, an affiliate of the nonprofit E+Co to provide technical assistance to Tecnosol and other small renewable energy enterprises.

Riding the bus in sustainable style makes for a much smoother ride. Learn more about how you can do your part to reduce your carbon footprint.

The Google "App to School" bus tour stopped at my campus, Abilene Christian University, on Monday, September 15th. The bus rolled into place early in the morning and by the time most students were heading to class the Googlers were hard at work showing folks new ways to use Google Apps. As the day continued, the lines grew longer and the excitement grew along with them. People hung out, they learned, they laughed, and they played a little Rock Band. All in all it was a fantastic visit.

We are thrilled to be part of the Google Apps family. Here at ACU, the entire campus -- faculty, staff and students -- use Google Apps. It is our only email and calendar system. Every day more and more people are discovering that not only is it a really cool email, chat and calendar, but it is also a powerful collaboration tool. As students and faculty members stopped by the bus, many were surprised to learn just how rich the features are in Google Apps. While most people knew about Google Docs and Spreadsheets, quite a few had no idea about Forms or Sites. You could see the light bulbs flashing all over as researchers realized the power of forms and student leaders realized how much Sites could help them connect.

As CIO, it is very important to me and to my organization that we provide the best possible technology infrastructure to our university community. Google Apps is certainly a major part of that infrastructure. It is hard to imagine anymore what life was like without it.

The only problem with the visit is that it ended too soon. It was a great day. We are eager to see what new innovations Google introduces in the future. In the meantime, we will continue to use the Apps tool set to collaborate in meaningful ways. We will also remember fondly the day that we got on the bus, played a little Rock Band, and made some new friends. Thanks Googlers for including us on the tour.

The study of Computer Science can be challenging and fun, and Google wants to inspire students to become active participants and leaders in creating technology. With this in mind, our educational outreach group, University Programs, and Diversity and Talent Inclusion teams joined forces to create the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI). This special institute included an interactive and collaborative CS curriculum, as well as a living-learning residential experience for student networking. We chose 17 college sophomores, all aspiring computer scientists, to attend the all-expenses-paid CSSI in Mountain View from August 3–15.

Our goals for the institute:

To enrich the skills of students early in their CS studies (and at risk of leaving the major) in an effort to increase the pipeline into the CS major and boost retention

To provide a social and professional network for underrepresented (women, Hispanic, African-American, and/or Native-American) technology students

To empower students, giving them the tools, motivation and confidence to continue with CS studies

To show students daily life at Google and the amazing applications of CS that occur here

Students heard from professionals from across the technology industry and academia about the many things they can do with a CS degree. They also worked in teams to build a completely interactive Web 2.0 website, keeping in mind both practical programming skills and the theory behind it.

We will keep in touch with these students across their college careers, and encourage future participants to complete their CS work and join the community of computer scientists. Stay tuned for more information on future iterations of this program!

Back in October 2006, the Google Apps team met with Adrian Sannier, the Chief Technology Officer at Arizona State University. Just two weeks later we announced that ASU was the first major university to fully deploy Google Apps to its 65,000 students. The rest, as they say, is history.

Almost two years later, the Google App to School bus pulled into Arizona State University and met with over a thousand students, faculty, and staff using Google Apps. Since ASU was one of our first deployments, we were excited to get feedback from the students who have been using the tools the longest. We received some great feedback from students on what they liked and what they would like to see in the future. We also wanted to reach people who were using Gmail and Calendar, but may not be as familiar with some of the other powerful collaboration tools they have with Google Apps, including Docs and Sites. We got a kick out of watching students' eyes light up when they learned something new about what they could do. Google Sites was a big hit as was the new forms feature in Docs. In fact, one student was literally jumping up and down because she had to put a survey together for a class project this weekend and was so excited that she ran straight home to use forms!

Besides all the students who stopped by, several folks from ASU's Technology Office came to hang out. Adrian Sannier came out and spent two hours talking to media, Googlers, and ASU students about Google Apps. In fact, when he wasn't behind the wheel of the bus, we often caught him in the tent running a demo for students and faculty.

Overall, it was a day of learning but also a day of celebration. Arizona State University became the first answer to the question: "so who is actually using Google Apps?" so we had a lot of fun expanding this great partnership.

At Google, we are trying to do more to increase diversity in the technology industry. If you are a computer science major you probably already know that women and minorities are significantly under-represented in the field. Did you know that each year 78% of computer science degrees are awarded to male students? According to studies conducted by the National Science Foundation, the annual graduation rate for women in computer science is just 22%, just 6.5% for Hispanic students, 4.8% for African American students, and under 1% of computer science degrees are awarded to American Indian students.

As part of our global efforts to increase diversity in our industry, we are pleased to announce the recipients of Google's 2008 Scholarship Programs, in partnership with the United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic College Fund, and the American Indian Science & Engineering Society.

Please join us in congratulating the 42 computer science students who have been recognized for their outstanding academic and leadership accomplishments in the computer science field. Each of these students will receive a $10,000 academic scholarship from Google, as well as an invitation to attend the all-expenses-paid Annual Google Scholars' Retreat, held each Spring at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California.

Yesterday, the App to School bus rolled into Los Angeles for our first stop at the University of Southern California. The sun was shining, and the students were out in full force, visiting our demo stations, hanging out in our tour bus, and picking up Google goodies along the way.

Representing the Google Docs team, Jen and I were particularly excited to show students some of our favorite Docs tips and tricks. For example, did you know that you could share a Google document with your classmates so that they can view and edit it online with you at the same time? That means no more messy email attachments! Need to do a survey for research in class? Check out the forms feature in Google Docs to create easy, free surveys that you can send out to anyone. (We've got many more of these nifty tips at our Apps for Students website.)

In our down time, we also managed to don some crimson and gold to take a few snapshots during the day.

Going to college can be exciting, but how do you keep your friends and family back at home updated on all the new things happening in your life? Well, one easy way is to create your own personal blog.

Blogs are a great way to share information (just like this one) and creating your blog takes just a few easy steps. Blogger has a simple-to-use interface so that you can start posting right away. And when you create your blog, you can host it for free on Blog*Spot. To find out more about what you can do with Blogger, check out the features page.

In addition, Blogger has recently made it easier for your friends and family to follow your blog. You can add a Followers gadget to your blog’s sidebar and then all they would have to do is click the “Follow This Blog” link. Now they’ll be able to see your posts in their Blogger Dashboard or in Google Reader and tell the world that they’re a fan of your blog. We’ve also added a Followers gadget to this blog to make it easier for you to keep updated on what’s happening here.

If you're reading this you probably go to college, can't wait to get to college, or desperately wish you were still in college. You're in the right place. Some of us on the Apps for Education team are in the "still wish we were in college" camp and have decided to take a cross-country road trip to prove that we still got it.

Okay... so the App to School tour isn't actually about pretending we're still in college. But we're excited that starting today we'll be hitting the road to visit a few of the thousands of schools that have deployed Google Apps. What does it mean for a school to use Google Apps on campus? It means that the entire campus community -- students, faculty, and staff -- can work together more easily using Google's email, calendar, and collaboration tools. At Google, we use Apps to run our business -- which we like to call "eating our own dogfood" -- and we're always eager to learn more about how students like you are using these products on and off campus. We figured that there's no better way to do this then by riding our eco-friendly bus across the US equipped with demos, Rock Band, and free goodies in tow. We invite you to come over and check out the bus and learn more about what Google Apps has to offer.

We'll be posting to this blog often with updates from the road, and you can check out more information (including photos and videos) about our trip here.

We look forward to seeing many of you on the bus, but until then enjoy the ride.

According to Google lore, our company founders didn't really get along when they first met as Stanford graduate students in 1995. Larry was a 24-year-old University of Michigan alumnus on a weekend visit; Sergey, 23, was assigned to show him around campus. Legend has it that they argued about every topic they discussed. Despite their bickering, they eventually realized that they shared a common goal of solving one of computing's biggest challenges: organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful.

Larry and Sergey then developed an approach to fulfilling this mission that started in a dorm room, expanded to a Menlo Park garage, and eventually became the global campus it is today.

Staying true to our roots, we have always focused heavily on academia. The next way we're attempting to do this is by launching this blog, especially geared towards students like you. Here we will provide you with useful information like product tips and tricks, and give you an inside look into the people and culture behind Google technology. This will also be the best spot to find out about student programs like Code Jam, the Google Online Marketing Challenge, Google Summer of Code™, and our Scholarship Programs and career opportunities.

In addition to this blog, we've also created an email alias where you can reach us directly. This is a way to get in touch with us and let us know what you want to hear about from us. And if you have something to share on this blog -- maybe a cool story about how you used a Google product on or off campus; or an experience from your days as an intern here -- please let us know, and we'd love to help you share it.

We look forward to hearing from you and keeping you up-to-date on all things Google as they relate to you.